Thousands of households could experience water shortages if another heatwave hits this summer as water companies struggle to cope with peaks in demand.
While it would be likely to take another year of dry weather before widespread restrictions on water use were introduced, experts warned that heatwaves were causing local outages due to “infrastructure failures”.
Eight water companies in the south of England and Wales have already introduced hosepipe bans following an exceptionally dry month.
England has received just three per cent of its long-term average July rainfall, with large parts of the country experiencing no rain at all.
“We’re going to be struggling to provide enough drinking water and we’ve already seen a few places failing where we have had to rely on bottled water because of infrastructure failures,” warned Hannah Cloke, regius professor of meteorology and climate science at the University of Reading.
Heatwaves causing outages
The UK has already experienced three distinct heatwaves this summer, with temperatures as high as 37°C.
These heatwaves have brought huge surges in demand for water, causing localised shortages in some areas.
Water companies are experiencing “limitations in their treatment and supplying structure at the moment because they’ve not been designed for these kind of weather events”, said Alastair Chisholm, water policy, regulation and governance lead at engineering group Arup.
Most notably, thousands of households in Kent and Sussex have repeatedly been left without water in recent weeks due to failures at the local water treatment plant and an inability to keep up with demand.
Low water levels at Howden Reservoir in the Peak District (Photo: Charley Atkins/SWNS)Other water companies are understood to be more resilient than South East Water, which has been criticised heavily for its failures.
However, residents across areas including London and Suffolk have also experienced shortages due to burst pipes and leaks, which happen more frequently during heatwaves. This is because prolonged hot, dry conditions can cause the ground to shrink and shift, putting stress on pipes, while higher water demand increases pressure on ageing water networks.
Anglian Water and Essex & Suffolk Water are among those warning that the hot weather has led to an increase in leaks.
Reservoirs getting low
Some reservoirs and rivers are starting to drop to worrying low levels, triggering responses from water companies and the Environment Agency.
Overall, England’s reservoir storage sits at 78.8 per cent, which is five per cent below the long term average.
However, six reservoirs across the south of England are now classed as being “notably low”, while Blagdon reservoir near Bristol is classed as “exceptionally low”.
Seven rivers have been classed as “exceptionally low”, including the River Swale in the North East, the River Tone in the South West, and the River Cam in East England.
Hosepipe bans are among the first restrictions introduced by water companies in these conditions, followed by restrictions on businesses such as gardens and sports fields, as well as farmers.
If water levels continue to decline, companies can apply to the EA to alter their permits, which will allow them to abstract more water from rivers than is considered healthy for the environment. Over 40 of these altered permits were issued during last year’s drought, but none have been issued yet this year.
“We prioritise public health and security of public water supply over the environment, so it’s then where you really start seeing impacts on the natural environment,” Chisholm said.
Could there be water rationing?
In a worst-case scenario, water companies can start imposing water rationing on households.
This has only happened once in recent memory, during the summer of 1976 when some people were required to obtain water from standpipes in the street.
Chisholm said it would be likely to take another year of exceptionally dry weather for this to happen again in England.
He added that there was more “interconnectivity” between regions managed by each water companies, which allows them to move supply around.
However, Cloke said it was “incredibly concerning” that some water levels were so low this early in the summer. “If we think about our supplies dropping and our infrastructure crumbling around us we’ve kind of got this double whammy problem for this summer,” she said.
While some rain is forecast in the coming weeks, the Met Office’s long range prediction for the South East of England remains largely hot and dry.
Cloke said it would take a “marathon” of rain to replenish some reservoirs.
The River Lea in Greater London is seen with no water in certain areas (Photo: William Lailey/SWNS)To prepare for Britain’s changing climate, water companies are building nine new reservoirs across England, the first to be built in the UK for more than 30 years. However, a number of the projects have been hit by delays due to rising costs and questions around how some of them will be filled with water.
One flagship project in Cambridgeshire, known as the Fens Reservoir, is scheduled to be completed by 2036. But earlier this year, regulators delayed a decision to progress to the next stage of the planning process amid uncertainty over “the possible sources of water to fill the reservoir”.
Water companies also have a target to reduce leakage by 20 per cent next year compared to a 2017 baseline. Almost a fifth of treated water is currently lost to leaks.
A spokesperson for Water UK, which represents companies, said: “The last thing water companies want to do is restrict the amount of water people can use but demand is at unprecedented levels following the warmest spring and June on record.
“Water companies are doing everything they can to ensure the taps keep flowing with hundreds of technicians out repairing leaks and water being moved across regions to relieve the driest areas.”
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